As the Internet continues its meteoric growth, scaling domain name service (DNS) resolution for root and generic top level domain (gTLD) servers at reasonable price points is becoming increasingly difficult. The A root server (i.e., a.root-server.net) maintains and distributes the Internet namespace root zone file to the 12 secondary root servers geographically distributed around the world (i.e., b.root-server.net, c.root-server.net, etc.), while the corresponding gTLD servers (i.e., a.gtld-servers.net, b.gtld-servers.net, etc.) are similarly distributed and support the top level domains (e.g., *.com, *.net, *.org, etc.). The ever-increasing volume of data coupled with the unrelenting growth in query rates is forcing a complete rethinking of the hardware and software infrastructure needed for root and gTLD DNS service over the next several years. The typical single server installation of the standard “bind” software distribution is already insufficient for the demands of the A root and will soon be unable to meet even gTLD needs. With the convergence of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and the Internet, there are opportunities for a general purpose, high performance search mechanism to provide features normally associated with Service Control Points (SCPs) on the PSTN's SS7 signaling network as new, advanced services are offered that span the PSTN and the Internet, including Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN), Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, geolocation services, etc.